SNL Recap: Charli XCX Serves Up Season 50's Best Episode

Charli XCX Serves Up the First Great Episode of SNL Season 50

All week, I was dreading this episode of Saturday Night Live. After an abysmal post-election episode headlined by Bill Burr last weekend, I feared that the show would collapse into a sour, pre-holiday funk. I also wasn’t sold on Charli XCX being tapped as host, mostly because musicians are so hit-or-miss from the captain’s post. Not everyone can be Ariana Grande or Selena Gomez, singers who have experience acting on sitcoms. Justin Timberlake and Paul Simon were outliers, but every once in a while, you’ll get a host like Harry Styles, Billie Eilish or Bad Bunny—musicians who have such unshakable levels of charms that they coalesce with the cast and deliver surprisingly great episodes. More often than not, however, musicians struggle to make a good transition into sketch territory—just ask Dua Lipa, Garth Brooks and Jack Harlow.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t think last night’s episode would be any good. Maybe it’s the Season 50 malaise I’ve been feeling, given that no host has really been able to bring any sort of momentum to the show this year. It doesn’t help that the season got off to a horrible start under Jean Smart’s care, or that Micheal Keaton delivered such a lackluster, listless episode that I wanted to turn it off midway through. Not even John Mulaney, SNL’s perennial can’t-miss host, was able to service the show into “great” territory. Charli XCX has been everywhere this year, all thanks to her monolithic, one-of-a-kind pop masterpiece BRAT—a four-letter word that has spawned trends and its own summer, been co-opted by politicians, got its own remix album and changed the way we see the color lime green forever. I feared BRAT fatigue was already beginning to set in, and that Charli’s hosting gig was coming a month too late—her terrible mid-week promo certainly didn’t quell any of my fears.

“Live from New York…”

I’m still patiently waiting for SNL to get the cold open sorted out this season, as every episode has failed to really capture anything meaningful in those first few minutes. I’m not going to keep bellyaching about Dana Carvey’s uninspired, gaping wound of a Joe Biden impression, if only because it’s obvious that the SNL veteran isn’t going anywhere anytime soon (though I would imagine that, after the inauguration in 2025, we might see somebody else step into the role). In the wake of Kamala Harris’s presidential election loss to Donald Trump, Maya Rudolph has been absent from the show completely—a shocking move that mirrors Harris’s moves in real life, as she’s maintained a rather low profile since the defeat. It’s time we prepare for another month of Carvey’s Biden and James Austin Johnson’s Trump, and last night gave us a mano-a-mano moment, riffing on the two politicians’ “transitional” Oval Office meeting on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine and the Middle East.

JAJ played Trump smart in last night’s cold open, attacking the president-elect from his newest angle: a “quiet and serene” guise meant to contrast his typical chaotic demeanor which is, as Trump puts it, “a lot scarier.” “I’m gonna sit here and smile while ignoring the giant fire right behind me,” Biden says, a “This is fine” meme personified into a bit that’s unfortunately a little too on the nose in the context of today’s precedent. “We love ‘This is fine’ dog!” Trump exclaims. Biden riffs on losing a few nukes and NATO briefings, while Trump laments how boring being president is. “Love running, hate being,” the president-elect bemoans, before criticizing the “stinky and sticky at the same time” carpets in the White House (which rival those in a Regal Cinema, of course). I have to tip my cap to JAJ for funneling all of Trump’s typical non-sequitur, non-sensical style of speech into a cool, calm and collected ruse—it’s chilling how thin the line between impression and real life is now (or always has been, depending on how empty your glass is).

We got a look at a few of the “whacko-jackos” Trump has picked for his soon-to-be cabinet, including Matt Gaetz (Sarah Sherman) and Robert F. Kennedy (Alec Baldwin). Three years ago, Pete Davidson played the now-Attorney General selection like a “live-action Quagmire” from Family Guy so, naturally, Sherman had to throw some “giggity giggity”s into her impression, and it works! I love Sherman’s effort here, and the eyebrows that the hair/makeup department put on her are horrific in a Jack Torrance kind of way. “Of course, I had to resign from congress, because the confirmation process comes at the busiest time of year for me,” Gaetz says. “Girls volleyball season.” Sometimes, an impression doesn’t require bang-on, verbatim mimicry. All you need are some prosthetics and an absurd situation to really sell the damn thing.

That being said, SNL bringing Baldwin in to play RFK Jr. was such an unlikable choice that I can’t help but believe it was a despicably self-indulgent birthday present from Lorne Michaels to himself. If you spent any time on TikTok during the election cycle, you probably caught clips of hundreds of creators effortlessly channeling Kennedy’s gravelly, gargling, gross voice. Seriously, it sounds like somebody shredded that man’s vocal cords with a pumice stone. How can so many non-comedians mimic the supposed future Secretary of Health and Human Services, but the guy who’s hosted SNL more than anyone else can’t? Here’s my wager: Alec Baldwin is so deeply unfunny and so deeply unlikable. Luckily, Carvey saved the day by dropping one last punchline: “I’ll do what every worn down old guy does. I’m gonna fight Jake Paul!”

“You look mahvelous!”

There were a few sketches last night that could be considered the best, which is a first for this season! For me, it’s a toss-up between “Banger Boyz” and “Shrek the Musical,” but I’m going to give it to “Banger Boyz.” Sometimes, the best SNL sketches are the ludicrous bits that are outdated, but “Banger Boyz” is so married to contemporary brain-rot that it’s too topical to fail. This isn’t the first time the show has riffed on podcast trends (“Father-Son Podcasting Microphone” is still great), but it might be the best iteration of the joke. “Banger Boyz” is the podcast that goes hard every single week, a show featuring three Trump-loving bros (Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernandez, Emil Wakim) and their producer Cara (Charli XCX). The juxtaposition between getting punched in the ballsack by an InstaBaddie (facts!) and discussing how they “built the pyramids” was unbelievably stupid and got a big LOL from me.

“Banger Boyz” was full of details, like an “I <3 To Fart” mug, a hamburger phone, bottles of Prime on a table covered in ZYN tins and a power glove. I also loved Hernandez’s hat, which says “Pube Whacker” on it (which also happens to be one of the podcast’s many sponsors). Apparently, these bros had Trump on their podcast before he got elected, and the president-elect has taken it upon himself to call two of them and ask them to be in his cabinet. Hernandez’s Dugan gets invited to be the Secretary of Commerce, which the boys have surmised is someone who is in charge of “all the commercials.” “Bro, first thing I’m gonna do in office? I’m gonna fire that little GEICO snake.”

Some discourse around whether or not the GEICO mascot is a snake or a gecko ensued (“Agree to disagree, my brother,” delivered in perfect, obtuse fashion by Hernandez), segueing into the next, inevitable topic: friend of the pod Jake Paul fighting Mike Tyson. This segued into my favorite part of the sketch, in which Hernandez talked about his dad abusing him (“My dad’s 64 and still kicks my ass every week”). Marcello went over-the-top with the bit by delivering the line of the night: “I hit my head so hard I can’t even taste anything.” Cara pops in periodically to dish the what’s-what on some of the show’s sponsors, including Cargo Condoms (the only condoms with pockets), ZYN Junior (for kids!), TopGolf (find out which one of your co-workers is an alcoholic), Male Chimp (a guy named Doug just has one), Warm Plunges (cold plunges that just got a hell of a lot more comfortable) and the aforementioned Pube Whacker (be very careful). PJ (Wakim) gets asked to be the United States’ new ambassador to Iran, to which he, upon realizing the implications, let’s out a somber “I don’t know if I wanna do that. Do you think I have to, like, live there?” “Maybe you can do it on Zoom!” Dugan affirms. It’s been a while since I had this much fun watching an SNL sketch.

“Yipee! Jerry Rubin died last week.”

You know it’s going to be a good Weekend Update when Colin Jost can run the gamut on conservatives without breaking a sweat. After calling Trump’s appointment of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General “a silly one,” he landed the lowest of blows on the disgraced (but, apparently, incredibly employable) congressman: “Gaetz, who was created when Frankenstein raped Dracula, was chosen for Attorney General after Trump remembered his original pick was found dead in a jail cell.” A quick cut to a photograph of Jeffrey Epstein capped off the best one-liner of the season, before Jost and Michael Che traded jabs at Elon Musk’s pivot to slavery, Plan B sells rising in the wake of Trump’s election victory, RFK Jr. becoming the first “brain worm survivor” to be nominated to cabinet-level position, FOX News programs being broadcast on CPAP machines and, my personal favorite, Che’s rib against New Jersey residents only bathing in “CVS cologne.”

Che loves to make an anti-woman joke, and most of them don’t hit the mark for me. But, it’s time to face the facts: His joke about women finally getting their “little president” once men go extinct in six million years was excellent. Jost calling the Spirit Airlines flight struck by gunfire from Haitian gangs a “rare setback for people who fly Spirit to Haiti” was perfect, as was his joke about Gaston leaving Disney park-goers “too wet.” The anchors took aim at the Catholic Church’s abuse scandals and Mattel’s recent snafu (putting a porn website link on their Wicked action figure boxes). Che got me good with his final joke of the night, insisting that, instead of reducing caffeine and alcohol consumption to get a good night’s sleep, you can “just rub one out like an adult.”

Bowen Yang returned to the Update desk last night as Joe Exotic after the “Tiger King” wrote a letter to Donald Trump asking to not only be pardoned, but to become a member of his presidential cabinet as the Director of Fish and Wildlife. It was far from Yang’s best impression, nor was it his best Update bit of Season 50 (his Chappell Roan-citing Moo Deng turn still lingers in excellence), but it was a worthwhile segment with some good one-liners (“Like my mullet, my politics are country over party”). When Che asked Joe if there’s anything else he’d like to say, the “Tiger King” replied with “I am not a perfect person” before taking a perfectly executed pause. The Life of Pi situation joke (where you’re stuck on a boat with your tiger and Indian boyfriend) was fun, too. Yang is so good at his job that even the weakest material has legs when he’s the architect.

Praise be, we got a new Sarah Sherman character on Update! Playing Hazel Nut, the widow of the recently euthanized NYC squirrel (and social media star) Peanut, Sherman got to crank the absurdity up to an 11. Her “Nuts! Where?” face and full-body spasms were solid gold, as were her struggles to chatter in-sync with the sound effect. And, it wouldn’t be a Sherman appearance on Update without her figuring out how to mock Jost along the way (“Have you ever bit a cop, Colin?” “Why would I bite the hand that feeds me pink cocaine?”). In an episode with a lot of great moments, a solid Update character cutting through the noise is a triumph that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Sherman remains the cast’s greatest oddity and one of its sharpest weapons. May Peanut rest in power, and may we never forget how he stuffed his cheeks on OnlyFans (both sets).

“Who’s the barber here?”

Watching the pre-Update sketches last night was like tapping into SNL’s cheat-sheet of this decade’s most bankable sketches. Up first was “Babymoon,” a sequel to the Ariana Grande-led “Bridesmaid Speech” sketch that went viral a month ago—on account of Marcello Hernandez’s “Domingo” character. It’s rare to see SNL revisit a sketch again so quickly, but in the modern age of content creation, why not milk a popular thing? I didn’t think the original Domingo bit was anything to write home about, although watching Grande sing terribly on purpose was electrifying. However, Charli XCX was an even better match for Heidi Gardner, Sarah Sherman and Ego Nwodim than Ariana, turning Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” into a continuity-lover’s dream. “Babymoon” reveals how the soon-to-be mother Kelsey (Chloe Fineman) went on a “bestie babymoon” in Miami and encountered Domingo again, who may or may not be the father of her baby.

Andrew Dismukes plays some of the best cuckolds in the show’s history, and he was an underrated delight in this sketch. But, of course, “Babymoon” wouldn’t be complete without a Domingo sighting in the final minute, and Hernandez is on a burner yet again. “Can we have a water birth? I have a hot tub!” got a big laugh out of me for no good reason. The “HOT TO GO!” chorus was the perfect source material for the sketch, making “D-O-M-I-N-G-O, Kelsey’s learning español / D-O-M-I-N-G-O, spends all day on Duolingo” the hottest new sing-a-long lyric. Singing the phrase “pregnant nudes” has never felt this good.

Elsewhere, the SNL writers dipped into one of their usual slam dunk sketches: Never-before-seen auditions. The format is a good way for the cast to stretch out and deliver some impressions, but how do you run this sketch past rehearsal without JAJ involved? Bowen Yang’s Annie Liebovitz was really good, as was his Charli XCX impression, while most of Fineman’s characters, especially JoJo Siwa, missed the mark (except for her Leslie Mann impression, which was a little too spot-on for my liking). Sarah Sherman’s Bernie Sanders made me yearn for Larry David more than ever, while Carvey’s Al Pacino was exactly what you’d expect: a mockery of Scarface made before citing Al’s bleak and blunt run-in with death. Charli tried her hand at the impression game, too, riffing on Adele and her bestie Troye Sivan without selling either of them very well. It was a so-so carousel of parodies with none of the bits coming off as very offensive either way.

“Thanksgiving Baking Championship 2024” used a template we’ve seen often (Eddie Murphy and Timothée Chalamet are notable alumni), and it usually works: baking contestants create holiday-themed desserts and most of them come out as phallic or embarrassing eyesores. Leo (Hernandez) dreams up something ambitious: a William Bradford-shaped cake. Instead, he delivers a monstrosity. Julianna (Charli XCX) makes a turkey cake with its legs spread, and it spews stuffing from its crotch. Sandy (Gardner) is the straight character of the bunch, making a pilgrim cake that is flawless. She gets reprimanded by the judges for “want[ing] it too bad.” Kyle Mooney reprises his character Ralph from the previous iterations of this sketch, bringing a nine-inch black dildo-shaped turkey along with him. Fun fact: This is the fourth Kyle Mooney character to be featured at least five times on SNL, a big feat for the guy whose sketches always got cut. “Thanksgiving Baking Championship” is a formulaic sketch built on a dumb, immature premise, but the day I don’t laugh at Mooney gleefully championing his dick-shaped desserts is the day I stop breathing.

“In a word? Chaos.”

“Commercial Acting” will likely float under the radar in discussions around last night’s episode, but I think it was quite an impressively absurd few minutes. The writers made Hernandez the anchor of the night, and I’m not totally mad at it. Here, he played a high-energy, ridiculous acting teacher who makes his students perform taglines from chain stores, medicine brands and fast-food joints. Dismukes gets a role in the sketch that Mikey Day, who was absent from the show entirely, would have probably pulled off much better, but it’s good to see Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline getting more screen-time every week (Emil Wakim has been steadily featured, too!). “Commercial Acting” likely doesn’t work without Hernandez at the helm, as he takes the otherwise-bleh script and makes it punctual and charmingly messy. I do love when an SNL sketch doesn’t have a clear point or resolution and the players can take three or four minutes to see just how much the live studio audience will let them get away with. “Commercial Acting” is a sketch that likely won’t be remembered come season’s end, but as a post-Update bit it delivered well enough to keep the momentum chugging along.

“You are weak like H.R. Pickens!”

“It Girl Thanksgiving” was the show’s weak point last night. Going into this episode, I worried that the SNL writers would lean into Charli XCX’s BRAT iconography too much for their own good, and this was the one sketch that failed to tip the scales into something meaningful—although Ego Nwodim’s Naomi Campbell bringing “The Substance” to the dinner was definitely a fun touch, even if the body horror angle feels a little more Sarah Sherman-esque in hindsight. Speaking of Sherman, she appeared here as Rachel Sennott, while Bowen Yang tackled Marc Jacobs and Chloe Fineman took a turn as Julia Fox (the real Fox introduced Charli XCX’s performance of “360” earlier in the night). Kenan Thompson played stylist Law Roach while Heidi Gardner appeared as Cher and Charli became Posh Spice. Oh, and newbies Jane Wickline and Ashley Padilla gave the Olsen twins a Siamese makeover, before both sisters eventually fell into their suit after bringing a cigarette casserole and dish of loaded mac ‘n’ cheese to the party.

“It Girl Thanksgiving” was really quite a bad showing, especially in an episode that, everywhere else, was pretty terrific (or serviceably laughable, at the very least). Gardner’s Cher impression gave me a migraine (most Cher impressions do), while Charli, Fineman, Sherman and Nwodim failed to move the needle towards anything that resembled memorable comedy. Kenan’s Roach got a chuckle out of me, but only because of the way he held his tiny purse for the entirety of the sketch. Yang’s Marc Jacobs was solid, as most of Yang’s characters are. I’m sure “It Girl Thanksgiving” does better in an episode of lesser quality, but the material here suffered.

“If you have a $50 bill, we can give you 50 singles.”

Weirdly, the opening credits teased a Please Don’t Destroy film, but it never happened (it was released on YouTube after the episode). Along with the “Wicked Auditions” sketch, we did get a new SNL Digital Short from Andy Samberg sans the Lonely Island (save for a very brief Avika Schaffer cameo in the background near the end) about a white suburbanite calling the cops on people for throwing things away in his garbage can and letting their dogs walk in his yard. We even got a non-Update appearance from Colin Jost! Just like the Lonely Island did with Rihanna in the Shy Ronnie bits more than a decade ago, Samberg pairs up with Charli XCX to deliver a walloping, catchy song about white people snitching on other white people. The production value was there, and Samberg and Charli did an excellent job performing together. I’ll go on record saying that “Here I Go” is better than “Sushi Glory Hole.” More than a hundred Digital Shorts later and Samberg can still find new ways to insert superstars into new environments and let them shine without having to do too much heavy lifting—and it was clear that Charli, an uber-talented, pop savant in her own right, was totally game to have a little fun with it, too.

Your very precious lunch hour…”

The final two sketches of the night were, unfortunately, striking contrasts in quality. “It Girl Thanksgiving” was the weakest effort of the night, while “Shrek: The Musical” was easily the best 10-to-1 of the season thus far. “Shrek: The Musical” is an example of the show leaning on one of its strengths: an absurd premise anchored by a sorely underused combination of Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman. Five friends (Charli XCX, Yang, Sherman, Ego Nwodim and Emil Wakim) go see a performance of Shrek on Broadway. One of them (Charli XCX) returns from the “bathroom” with green makeup all over her mouth and hands. She’s accused of hooking up with Shrek (Michael Longfellow) and, before Sherman walks out with green handprints on her chest, we get this great exchange between Yang and Wakim: “Sorry, three chatty ladies on Adderall and a gay guy—kinda hard to get a word in!” Wakim says. “Hey! I’m on Adderall, too!” Yang exclaims.

“Shrek: The Musical” succeeded because all five players really went for it. Yang raised the stakes especially, hiking up the tensions and going on the defensive. His chaotic, interrogating demeanor worked well with this ensemble, and the reveal of ogre handprints on ass-cheeks was capped off with him admitting to getting an OTPBTWMB (“over-the-pants-below-the-waist-motor-boat”) from Shrek. Yang called the group “biphobic” for assuming he hooked up with Shrek and not Fiona post-ogre reveal, to which Sherman asked him if he’s bi. “Ew, no!” he retorted, trying his best not to break. Longfellow took the mantle as Shrek, subbing in for Bad Bunny and giving the DreamWorks characters a lick of his signature deadpan. The whole thing worked and, for the first time all season, the show ended in explosive fashion.

Not Ready For Primetime Power Rankings

1. Marcello Hernandez
Between Domingo, his turn in “Banger Boyz,” being the anchor in “Acting Teacher” and doing an impression of Sebastian Maniscalco, Hernandez was definitely the non-Charli XCX star of last night’s episode. I’m not 100% sold on him being one of the show’s stars, as he hasn’t been able to really amass a diverse repertoire of characters quite yet, but he’s been one of Season 50’s MVPs so far.

2. Sarah Sherman
At the beginning of the season, I feared that Sherman had slipped into the “straight woman” role she so desperately should not be playing, but last night she came alive as a safety net in sketches like “Shrek: The Musical” and “Babymoon” while stealing Update with her turn as Peanut the Squirrel’s Widow, Hazel. In an episode that saw Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim struggle to find any separation from the scripts, Sherman blossomed. Oh, and she also impersonated Bernie Sanders and Rachel Sennott last night. She was everywhere—a trend I hope sticks moving forward.

3. Bowen Yang
Yang was terrific last night, appearing as Joe Exotic, impersonating Charli XCX and Marc Jacobs, and anchoring the “Shrek: The Musical” sketch. His performance in the latter is what seals his spot near the top of the power rankings for me, as it was a prime example of why he’s the male lead of this current cast.

Goodnights

“For those of you who recognize me, you might know me from my album BRAT, but don’t worry if you don’t—there is nothing wrong with being straight.” —Charli XCX

SNL is off until December 7th when it returns with first-time host Paul Mescal and musical guest Shaboozey. And that’s the way it is! Goodnight.

Matt Mitchell is Paste’s music editor, reporting from their home in Northeast Ohio.

Charli XCX Serves Up the First Great Episode of SNL Season 50